TWENTY pence does not buy you much these days. A third of a chocolate bar or perhaps half of this newspaper.

It would, we were told, have bought a victim of a brutal attack the chance to travel home on a bus rather than risk a late-night walk.

The woman who was raped in Nottingham was thrown off a bus because she only had £4.80 of the £5 bus fare.

So far, questions have been asked about why the bus driver didn’t just waive the 20p and why none of the other passengers stepped forward to give her the money and help her out.

In truth, we don’t know the answers.

The bus driver may have been a jobsworth or there may be very good reasons why his bosses might instruct him not to let people off their fares or keep buses waiting while people pop to the bank.

The passengers on the bus may have been miserly or they may simply have been blissfully unaware of any commotion going on.

It doesn’t really matter. What ifs are fairly pointless in these situations because the only person to blame is the rapist – a 19-year-old called Joseph Moran.

But, even so, I suspect that many of those on the bus might now be kicking themselves because they probably would have happily given her the 20p.

I can’t believe the reason they didn’t was ever really about the money.

The real reason no one came forward was probably the same reason anyone might say no to any appeal for cash from a stranger.

It’s normally a combination of mild embarrassment, the fear that you may be being conned or a general desire not to get involved in other people’s business.

Once when I was on holiday, a man claiming to have been mugged asked me for £30 for a taxi back to his hotel.

I said no. He didn’t seem genuine.

I worried for a while that I might have ignored a soul in distress but luckily my suspicions were confirmed when I spotted him trying to pull the same trick at a later date.

I’m glad I didn’t give him the money but if I had I think £30 would still have been a small price to pay for the privilege of not living my life under a cloud of constant suspicion.

20p is even less.